Moral Emotion Moral Cognition And Im Moral Behavior In The Workplace

Moral behavior is subject to socially accepted moral norms and also has a pervasive influence on organizational performance. With the emergence of ethical issues found in organizations, practitioners and scholars pay increasing attention to ethics management. Therefore, workplace moral behavior (e.g., pro-social behavior and organizational citizenship behavior - OCB) and immoral behavior (e.g., interpersonal abusive behavior, deviant/counterproductive behavior, and unethical pro-organizational behavior) have also received substantial research interests over the past decades. To date, the most common framework used to study moral behavior has been the cognitive approach, with abundant evidence demonstrating that emotion and cognition are the two core elements in generating and influencing workplace (im)moral behavior. However, limited studies have been conducted to explore the emotional/cognitive processes or integrative moral emotion-cognition system relevant to workplace moral behavior. Despite our knowledge of the antecedents and consequences of workplace (im)moral behaviors, more research on the generating mechanism, influencing mechanism, transformation mechanism, and governance strategies is needed. For example, it is unclear how exhibiting (im)moral behavior in the workplace would impact the actor’s and the third-party observer’s emotions, thoughts, feelings, and subsequent behavior. Besides, the question of whether ethical/unethical leader behavior would trigger a “trickle-down effect” is underdeveloped, which refers to the fact that how the behavior or perception of the top leaders affects employees from top to bottom along the formal vertical power chain. In addition, we have little knowledge on when, how, and why the ethical employees (the so-called “good soldiers”) would engage in workplace immoral behavior, and vice-versa.

Organizations experience immoral behavior quite often. For example, one can think of the Madoff investment scandal and the increasing rate of frauds in companies during the last years. In order to prevent employees from behaving immoral, it is important to know what drives (im)moral behavior. This work explores the effect of emotions on moral behavior. Specifically, the emotion disgust is chosen to explore this relationship. To investigate the effect of disgust on moral behavior an experiment is conducted. This experiment has two conditions. In the experimental condition disgust is evoked by a movieclip and in the control condition no specific emotions are evoked. After the watching the movie clip participants had to complete a math task on which they could cheat. Cheating is considered as an important indicator for immoral behavior. The results show a trend that suggests that individuals who experience disgust behave less moral than individuals in a neutral emotional state. This work thus explores what drives (im)moral behavior and is interesting for managers who are interested in the effect of emotions on moral behavior.

Comprehensively examining the relationship between cognition and emotion, this authoritative handbook brings together leading investigators from multiple psychological subdisciplines. Biological underpinnings of the cognition-emotion interface are reviewed, including the role of neurotransmitters and hormones. Contributors explore how key cognitive processes -- such as attention, learning, and memory -- shape emotional phenomena, and vice versa. Individual differences in areas where cognition and emotion interact -- such as agreeableness and emotional intelligence -- are addressed. The volume also analyzes the roles of cognition and emotion in anxiety, depression, borderline personality disorder, and other psychological disorders.

Why do honest and decent employees sometimes overstep the mark? Drawing on scientific experiments and examples from business practice, Muel Kaptein discusses why good people sometimes do bad things and how they rise above this behavior.

Humans are universally concerned with good and evil, although one person's "evil" can be another person's "good." How do individuals arrive at decisions about what is right and what is wrong? And how are these decisions influenced by psychological, social, and cultural forces? Such questions form the foundation of the field of moral psychology. In trying to understand moral behavior, researchers historically adopted a cognitive-rationalistic approach that emphasized reasoning and reflection. However, a new generation of investigators has become intrigued by the role of emotional, unconscious, and intra- and interpersonal processes. Their explorations are presented in this third addition to the Herzliya Series on Personality and Social Psychology. The contributors to this volume begin by presenting basic issues and controversies in the study of morality; subsequent chapters explore the psychological processes involved, such as the cognitive mechanisms and motives underlying immoral behavior and moral hypocrisy. Later chapters discuss personality, developmental, and clinical aspects of morality as well as societal aspects of good and evil, including the implications of moral thinking for large-scale violence and genocide. The wide-ranging findings and discussions presented in this volume make this work a provocative and engaging resource for social psychologists and other scholars concerned with moral judgments and both moral and immoral behavior.

Using path-breaking discoveries of cognitive science, Mark Johnson argues that humans are fundamentally imaginative moral animals, challenging the view that morality is simply a system of universal laws dictated by reason. According to the Western moral tradition, we make ethical decisions by applying universal laws to concrete situations. But Johnson shows how research in cognitive science undermines this view and reveals that imagination has an essential role in ethical deliberation. Expanding his innovative studies of human reason in Metaphors We Live By and The Body in the Mind, Johnson provides the tools for more practical, realistic, and constructive moral reflection.

This volume brings together philosophical perspectives on emotions, imagination and moral reasoning with contributions from neuroscience, cognitive science, social psychology, personality theory, developmental psychology, and abnormal psychology. The book explores what we can learn about the role of emotions and imagination in moral reasoning from psychopathic adults in the general community, from young children, and adolescents with callous unemotional traits, and from normal child development. It discusses the implications for philosophical moral psychology of recent experimental work on moral reasoning in the cognitive sciences and neurosciences. Conversely, it shows what cognitive scientists and neuroscientists have still to learn from philosophical perspectives on moral reasoning, moral reflection, and moral responsibility. Finally, it looks at whether experimental methods used for researching moral reasoning are consistent with the work in social psychology and with philosophical thought on adult moral reasoning in everyday life. The volume's wide-ranging perspectives reflect the varied audiences for the volume, from students of philosophy to psychologists working in cognition, social and personality psychology, developmental psychology, abnormal psychology, and cognitive neuroscience.

Cynicism often seems a smarter choice than idealism. There are reasons for this. Politicians have disappointed us time and again; trusted institutions have proven to be self-serving and corrupt; hopes for lasting world peace repeatedly have been dashed; and social inequities persist and increase, unabated by even the grandest of charitable efforts. It is now considered foolish to think that people can be counted on to rise above their narrow self-interests to serve the broader good, or to tell the truth if it does not reflect well on the self. Supporting this bleak view of the human condition is a moral psychology that has taken increasingly cynical turns in recent years. Famous studies have shown that we have an almost unlimited potential for cruelty when placed in the wrong situations. The Power of Ideals presents a different vision, supported by a different kind of evidence. It examines the lives and work of six 20th century moral leaders who pursued moral causes ranging from world peace to social justice and human rights. Using these six cases to illustrate how people can make choices guided by their moral convictions, rather than by base emotion or social pressures, authors William Damon and Anne Colby explore the workings of three virtues: inner truthfulness, humility, and faith. Through their portrayal of the noble lives of moral leaders, the authors argue that all of us--with ordinary lives--can exercise control over important life decisions and pursue ideals that we believe in.